Yelich Goes To the Brewers — And the Jays’ Bid Seems To Have Come In Second!

The dream of the Blue Jays trading for Christian Yelich is over, as he’s been dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers for a package headlined by outfield prospect Lewis Brinson, who was recently named the 18th best prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America.

On a good note, however, the fucking nightmare that was the Blue Jays trading for Christian Yelich is also over!

Brewers were the team that put forth the best deal (as I said 2 days ago). The only other team that came close was the Blue Jays. Said no to Vlad Jr.

It’s a little unclear from this tweet, but I’m preeeeeeetty sure it was the Blue Jays who said no on Vlad. Which is to say: I’m extremely sure. (Which is to say, Mish has confirmed it.) And good for Ross Atkins for not going that far.

It’s interesting to wonder just how far they might have gone, though, isn’t it?

Could they have been offering Bo Bichette? If the Marlins are requiring Vlad in the deal in order to beat the Brewers’ offer, it certainly could mean that. Unless Miami isn’t especially enamored with Bichette and their focus at the top was Anthony Alford — who has a similar profile to Brinson, but isn’t as good.

Marc Hulet suggests that a similarly shaped package from the Jays might have been Alford, Richard Ureña, Lourdes Gurriel, and Angel Perdomo, which… maybe? I don’t know that the Marlins would have been quite so rigid, but working from that, it does seem a bit light, and does seem like something the Jays would have had to add to in order to beat Brinson, plus the other prospects who are on their way to Miami (Monte Harrison, also an outfielder, who was just ranked the 75th best prospect in the game, being one of them).

So… yeah.

What ultimately seems to have happened here is pretty much what you’d expect: the Brewers’ 2018 window is more open than the Jays, and their farm system will survive this hit better than the Jays would have if they’d upped their offer, so Milwaukee can allow themselves to make the big move that the Jays just can’t quite. Alford and the rest of those names would have hurt, but it certainly would have been OK, given that Yelich is so good, so much a finished product, and still under control himself for five years, but if Vlad and Bo are entering the mix, that’s awfully tough, and one can certainly see why the Jays would have been reluctant.

Then again, maybe the Jays don’t mind the idea of moving Bichette in the right deal — and maybe Yelich was it. Evidently there were a bunch of scenarios discussed:

Blue Jays & Marlins had several variations of a deal. Some included salary going from Mia to Toronto. In the end Marlins once they were officially told no on Vlad, it was definitely Milwaukee.

I like at least that the Jays were being aggressive here — and willing to take on salary. Though it doesn’t amount to a whole hell of a lot at this point. There’s still time to go get a pitcher, perhaps, but with their attrition rate so much higher, I’m not sure if the Jays would be as willing to move so many pieces in order to get a bunch of years of control of one. Hard to say!

What we can say, though, is that I hope to hell they don’t actually do something like this:

Now, this is obviously coming from somewhere– I’m certainly not going to say that Blair is making a thing like that up — but fuck… let’s hope it’s some bad intelligence or something. And that’s not even just because I am somehow still slightly optimistic on Kendrys (and I’d hope that the Jays, who bought in as hard as they did a year ago, would also retain some optimism — especially since some of the underlying numbers would seem to be in line with what excited them so much last year). It’s because that would be an abomination of a fucking way to lower Bichette’s trade value! Like, really? The not-even-all-that-burdensome contract for Morales is something they might seriously want so badly to get out from under that they’d take that kind of a hit? They wouldn’t be better off just eating the money?

I mean, I guesssss if the freed-up cash meant a Cain (though he’s off the market now — the damn Brewers just got him, too) or a Darvish (plus you’d still get something good from the trade, just not as good) you could make it a net positive somehow. But… yeah… fuck that. And fuck the Brewers for outbidding the Jays on Yelich.

In my opinion, jays could have easily outbid the brewers with bichette, gurriel, and zeuch. They didnt have to give up vlad to make this deal work. Sucks that they came in 2nd but it may have been a distant. Stupid jeter will give away stanton to the yankees but will demand nothing less than vlad from the jays.

Brewers gave up two top 100 prospects and a third who had an off year due to injuries but was in the top 100 the year before. It would be Bichette, Pearson, Pardinho and some 20-25 ranked prospect in the Jays system.

The Jays come up with the silver medal again. I’m kidding, I’m kidding (mostly) because I’m actually fine with this. The Brewers were able to make their two big moves tonight (plus upcoming trades of their *other* outfielders, we can assume) because they stood pat for a while and struck when the time was right.

Gotta figure that whoever went to the fifth season for Cain at a high AAV was most likely getting him.

I find myself a little disappointed, but I was not present during negotiations. Yelich sure would of been what the doctor ordered. Yelich is a proven asset and prospects are just that prospects. Jays have to move on now, this FO has been full of surprises pulling off trades out of the blu. Plan B float the boat until next season.

If the Jays gave up Bichette to rid themselves of Morales, Shapiro would have to crawl on his hands and knees into AA’s Atlanta office and beg for forgiveness. That is completely absurd and if that is anything other than a complete communication breakdown between Blair and his source, it’s probably time for Blair to look for some other line of work.

If it’s true, I think the context was a bit more complicated than that. Maybe the Jays were negotiating a trade, several scenarios were on the table, and the one including Bichette involved Kendrys and his contract going back to the other team. I have no idea, but it seems far more likely than being willing to give up Bichette for free to anyone in exchange for taking Morales. If that were the case, teams would be lining up to make that deal. In fact, taking on salary to get prospects is exactly what the Jays have been doing for the past couple years (Ramirez, McGuire, and Hernandez say hi).

If the Alford package and eating a lousy marlin contract would have got it done that would be great, glad they didn’t deal bo for Yelich however, and agree definitely don’t package bo to dump morales contract. It’s not that onerous a contract, think Tillman is s good bounce back candidate if they can’t sign Someone like Cobb.

The Marlins have a deep need for OF prospects as most of their best are in the low minors at this point.. I could completely see them going after Alford but beyond that the package that the Jays would give up would be so dependent on what the Marlins value that it is hard to draw parallels to the package they accepted from Milwakee. Yelich is a great player but I’m not giving up a top 10 prospect for him + a bunch of other valuable pieces.

This is all complete cr*p. Bottom line, Jeter wasn’t going totrade with a team in the AL East, other than the Yankees. He would only deal with us if we threw in Guerrero. So Milwaukee’s were 23 year old Brinson ( .106 BA in MLB last year), and three 21-22 year old mid-lelvel prospects in A ball, to wanting one of the best three prospects in all of baseball, plus three mid-level prospects?

This is total BS. Jeter’s essentially demanding divisional premium OUTSIDE of his division. The Yankees have a nursery team, in the majors.

Its entirely possible that they are not as high as some are on Vlad, or Bo, and that they are higher on Brinson than most. The problem with having 2 prospects in the top ten is every trade proposal from now on will include one of those names whether it is rational or not.

We still have a shot at Darvish as I recall we came second the first go around for him only to be beaten by the Rangers. Brewer fans must be pleased with their ownership.
I get to hear the G.M. spin tomorrow as Aitkins is in God’s country in an annual $75 rubber chicken luncheon that sees most of the money going to help under privileged kids get baseball equipment and coaching to play the summer game. In the past the Jays would bring in a couple of guys who had a cup of coffee or a few beers in their short stay in Vancouver. Apparently the single A affiliate of the Jays isn’t worthy anymore. But as I say all I care is seeing some needy youngsters actually get a chance to play ball.

Hulet way off with Jays equivalent IMO. Brinson and Harrison are #12 and #75 on BA top-100. Alford is 60 and nobody else is particularly close to top-100. Gurriel, Urena, and Podermo are depth prospects. If the Jays trade Bichette to eat Morales’ salary, the FO should be shot. Morales can just be cut. It’s not like he’s Pujols with some contract going to weigh the team down forever.

I don’t know if crazy is the right word, but I think it shows how much they value Bichette if they’re only willing to part with him if they get A) a proven major league talent who is boderline great and has years of control, and B) someone will take their worst contract off the books as well.

I don’t see the problem with the Blair scenario. They weren’t going to give up their potential superstar with tons of cheap control for a proven all star with 5 years of not so cheap control unless they could also unload a problem contract. And no, I don’t buy that he suffered from two full seasons of shitty luck because his avg exit velo is so high. I bought that story heading into 2017. To quote the 43rd President of the US: “Fool me once and ummm uhhhh errr, I won’t be fooled again!”

So bottom line, we didn’t get CY, but he’s still in the NL and we still have Vladbo.

The Jays offering to take on salary makes me wonder. I’m sure the Marlins would love to rid themselves of Wei-Yin Chen’s contract, and the Jays need a mid-rotation starter, so if he’s healthy… sure? Chen is signed through 2020 but is owed $52 million, so I can totally see them saying, we’ll do it but Bichette’s off the table, or you’re going to have to eat the $23 million we owe Morales (and potentially include something else).